A life goal for many Hudson High School students is to go into the medical field, but medicine contains so many subcategories that it is easy to feel confused or lost. Desired specialization varies from student to student, and many don’t know where to start when it comes to learning more about medical professions. MedEx, short for Medical Explorers, is a club with the goal of providing students who are interested in the medical field with opportunities to learn about it and connect with others with similar interests.
It was founded by juniors Erica Liu, Jiyoo Lee and Evian Czirok, all of whom plan to enter the medical field in the future and are co-presidents. Liu plans to become a plastic surgeon, Lee wants to work in pediatric medicine and Czirok hopes to become a neurosurgeon. “We wanted to provide interested students with more exposure to medical careers,” Liu said. “I knew some of my friends were on the edge of going into the medical field or not, and I hoped that through this club they would get to explore more and know what they wanted to do in the future.”
Club meetings usually consist of working on fund-raisers for healthcare causes, such as writing Valentine’s cards for Akron Children’s Hospital and working with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, for which they are raising money right now. Recently, members of the club volunteered at the fashion show run by the Fashion Club in support of LLS. In the future they also hope to work with an organization that benefits children. The club’s social media manager Connie Bowler detailed some of their other ideas for the future such as making scrapbooks to help the elderly remember their lives and feel more connected with their past.
When they are not working on their charitable efforts, the club hears talks from medical professionals. “So far, we’ve had many guest speakers come talk at our meetings. These typically include professors from all different medical majors. We’ve also had doctors and some residents, and they would just talk about how the medical field is, what they do and kind of promote how they got there to show the schooling that you would have to go through.”
To get in contact with these speakers, who typically address the club over Zoom, they usually reach out through email. Club spokesperson Rachel Lehman is usually the one to reach out to potential speakers. Liu said that she got a professor from Ohio State University to speak to the club by looking through the faculty on the school’s website and sending an email. “She was telling us how she went all the way from mechanical engineering to biochemical engineering, and she was telling us all these aspects of biochemical engineering, and I think what was really awe-inspiring was that she laid out the entire road map to get there, every single step of the way, and always gave us a way to back out of it too.”
Most of the other speakers are local, including the parents of some club members. Liu said that she also hopes to get in contact with a professor from an Ivy League school in the future, as well as with an actual hospital to find potential volunteer positions for club members. “I think it’s a good opportunity for people to explore a little more and see if they want to do it in the future,” Liu said. To help club members gain medical knowledge they occasionally do activities like Kahoot, and they are planning to do mock medical school interviews to prepare for the real ones.
The club itself is midsized, with usually 10 to fifteen attendees per meeting. Liu says that smaller attendance makes it easy to organize the club’s events and projects, though she hopes more people join in the future. MedEx meets on Fridays after school in room C108 until 4:00, and they are very open to accepting any new members who are interested in joining, whether one wishes to enter the medical field or not. For more information, Medical Explorers can be contacted on Instagram @medex.hhs.
